Mary Jennings Hegar Video Interview: On ‘Shoot Like A Girl,’ Women In Military, Donald Trump

Mary Jennings Hegar On ‘Shoot Like A Girl… by Uinterview

Mary Jennings Hegar, an Air Force veteran, has penned a memoir Shoot Like A Girl about her life in the line of fire, which even included exchanging fire with the Talban. “On a Medevac mission, we went out to a convoy that had hit an IAD, to pick up three American soldiers who were wounded,” Hegar told uInterview in an exclusive video interview. “When we picked them up, we received a lot of damage from the ground forces there.”

“We tried to lift to get the patients back to safety. But aircraft was so damaged that we ended up doing a hard landing / crash about two miles away and then defending our perimeter against enemy ground forces for about 20 minutes while we were waiting for exfiltration,” Hegar continued.

Hegar was courageous as ever as she stood on the enemy grounds.

“I was actually really happy that I was the one there,” the author noted. “The hardest thing in that kind of situation, the person you don’t want to be, is the one back in the operation seminar listening to the whole thing unfold on the radio. And listening to your brothers and sisters being out in enemy territory and not being able to help… So I was happy to be there to defend them.”

In 1999, Hegar was commissioned into the U.S. Air Force through ROTC at The University of Texas, her alma mater. In 2004, she was selected for pilot training by the Air National Guard, and upon completion of training at the top of her class, she served three tours in Afghanistan flying Combat Search, as well as Medevac missions. She has received numerous military awards, including 2008 California Aviator of the Year, Purple Heart award, National Defense Service Medal and the Humanitarian Service Medal.

Mary Jennings Hegar Video Interview On ‘Shoot Like A Girl’

Her forthcoming memoir, Shoot Like A Girl, chronicles her harrowing military career, and tells the true story of a brave, high-spirited and unforgettable woman who spent much of her life ready to sacrifice herself for others.

 

In 2012, a lawsuit was filed against the Pentagon to knock down gender barriers in the U.S. armed forces. The Pentagon had failed to integrate their ranks, despite U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter‘s announcement that women will be allowed in all combat positions in the military. This was intended to end the decades of exclusion of females from frontline jobs. Hegar decided to join the lawsuit as a lead plaintiff. “It helps me feel like things have a design and that things happen for a reason, which I never used to feel before,” Hegar said.

“My daughter came to me in tears, she was eleven years old, she had told me before that she had wanted to be a marine. And she came to me one day in tears and said that somebody had told her she couldn’t do that job because it was a boy’s job. and she asked me why I didn’t tell her that,” the author continued. “I told her that that’s not true. I knew a lot of really amazing, strong female marines. And I told her that I was sorry that that was the culture that would tell her that, and that I would do something about it… The very next day, I get a phone call from the ACLU  asking me to take part in the lawsuit. And it was an easy ‘yes’ for me.”

Hegar also dispelled misconceptions about women, both in her memoir and in her daily life.

“I think it’s a huge misconception that the “warrior’s spirit” and having a “warrior’s heart” is an exclusively male trait, and that women are supposed to be nurturers,” she said. “I had somebody ask me once, what it was like to be a mother, and did that conflict with my warrior spirit… I think it absolutely comes from the same exact place.”

“I’ve gone into battle with men and women, some men who I would take a bullet for who are amazing, and some men whom I would refuse to go into combat with again because of the way they maintained themselves,” Hegar said. “And women, there were women who clearly didn’t belong in  a combat zone and then there were women who were warriors who I would go into combat with on my wing any day.”

In 2013, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta lifted the military’s official ban on women in combat, much to the jubilation of those who had been fighting for equality in the armed forces.

“I was ecstatic,” Hegar said. “I was confident that Leon Panetta and most of our military senior leaders wanted to repeal this policy… He lifted that policy in response to my lawsuit, another lawsuit, and the unanimous recommendation of his joint chief of staff. So it was very validating for me that I felt like we were all on the same page and all trying to do the right thing for the military.”

Hegar is hopeful that President Donald Trump will not reverse that decision.  “I hope not. I think that Secretary Mattis, from what I can tell of him, he seems to be an amazing military leader that will do a great job as Secretary of Defense.”

Hager believes that both Mattis and Trump could derive some benefit from reading her book.

“I do think that if one of them, or both of them pick up my book, that’ll inform their experience with women in combat a little more, and that’s part of the reasons I wrote the book,” she said. “I had a responsibility to tell this story, specifically for that reason, to inform the national conversation and show what women can do in combat.”

Her memoir Shoot Like a Girl is available now from Penguin Berkley Caliber.